Various color compositions have been used for art and craft applications for children and artists since ancient times. Among the well known of these colorants are water colors, glue colors, acrylic paints and fabric paints et cetera. Most of the color formulations and techniques to date have been standardized and widely used. The conventional materials lack versatility of application and can cause children and novices to lose interest. Curry et. al. in U.S. Pat. No. 4,139,965 describe a chemically reactive marker that introduced a surprising and exciting element in the making of the art work. Hawkins in U.S. Pat. No. 4,578,131 described a method of creating a three dimensional sculptured painting with enhanced three dimensional effects. In the U.S. Pat. No. 4,584,042, Wandroik describes an artistic method for creating an art form in the steps of permanently affixing a first substrate material to a second substrate material wherein the second substrate is rigid relative to the first substrate. Even though there is a diversity of techniques and methods described in the literature, there continues to be a need for colorants, marker devices and methods which produce novelty art and crafts through elements of surprise and fun. The present invention describes a novel system of marking visible surfaces using pituitous colorants which brings in an element of surprise and fun to the art of marking surfaces.
In general, stringy behaviour of a material system is associated with highly viscous fluids. It was noticed and found in experiments that addition of certain additives remarkably enhanced the elastic character of a number of common water-based colorants used in paint and coating of art and craft products such as the water colors, the acrylic colors or the polyvinyl acetate glue, water-based inks etc., while maintaining substantial fluidity. It was soon realized that such compositions are ideal for use in a variety of marking devices where the colorant can be easily dispensed at room temperature due to fluidity but at the same time stretched like a rubbery solid. The color compositions of the present invention exhibit this apparent contradiction leading to novelty and uniqueness of many pen type devices and methods of marking using such devices.